1/23
2/23
3/23
4/23
5/23
6/23
7/23
8/23
9/23
10/23
11/23
12/23
13/23
14/23
15/23
16/23
17/23
18/23
19/23
20/23
21/23
22/23
23/23
Building Societies Catalogue
To coincide with the Housing Unlocked exhibition, we compiled and published an accompanying 52-page catalogue for our proposal ‘Building Societies’. The publication situated our proposal within a wider context of site specific investigation. The catalogue contains supporting essays, imagery, drawings and source materials that explore the highly situated design process across 3 chapters;
01. The Idea | 02. The Model | 03. The References
Chapter 01 The Idea explores the genesis of the Building Societies exhibition proposal - using a former Bank of Ireland building in the town of Edenderry, County Offaly as a case study. This chapter explores the particular rhythm of this place, drawing comparisons with the common challenges and opportunities inherent in the social and physical morphology of Irish regional towns. This chapter makes an argument for the value of vacant bank buildings as urban vessels - for sustainable homes with the upper levels, and secondly through opening up the generous banking hall as a covered freespace that unlocks backland housing sites and space for wild nature and play.
1/14
2/14
3/14
4/14
5/14
6/14
7/14
8/14
9/14
10/14
11/14
12/14
13/14
14/14
Chapter 02 explores the design of the exhibition piece as an manifestation of the concept. Placed on a plinth, the bank has been taken back to its fundamental components. We were interested in the idea that this model could feel as simple as a set of children's timber building blocks, whilst communicating the heft and physical presence of the bank building. Ideas about the individual and the collective were explored through assembly and component drawings - the models construction encourages an unconscious cognitive process of assemblage, a mental play between mind and object.
1/15
2/15
3/15
4/15
5/15
6/15
7/15
8/15
9/15
10/15
11/15
12/15
13/15
14/15
15/15